Almanac Podcasts: ‘The Cat Pack’, a podcast by four Nuff Nuffs who love the Geelong Football Club

 

The Cat Pack

In 2017 my son Zach introduced me something new: podcasts. I was instantly hooked. Hours of driving became a literal pleasure as I explored a range of genres: true crime (Casefile), modern life (This American Life), economics (Freakanomics), politics (Slow Burn), history (The Rest is History), design (99% Invisible), humour (Heavyweight) and sport (The Howie Games).

 

The smorgasbord of great stuff to listen to when the footy wasn’t on the radio has filled a hole I hadn’t realised existed.

 

Fast forward to 2025 and, you guessed it, I’ve joined the podcasting community. Along with three mates, we now record a weekly podcast called The Cat Pack, a name chosen after exhaustive market research, basically a brainstorm between the four of us and run past any family members who were handy at the time. But how did I make the leap from consumer to producer?

 

Not surprisingly it started with a mate, in this case, Scott Darlow.

 

Darlow is an Indigenous man from Yorta Yorta country, a musician, a speaker, a husband and father, and, as he insisted on me saying, although I have no proof of the veracity of his claim- a Rumbalara premiership hero.

 

I met him in one of my former lives as a high school chaplain in Busselton, WA about twenty years ago. He was touring around the south-west, speaking and playing music in schools, pubs and churches, talking about Indigenous issues and Aboriginal culture. An accomplished guitarist and yidaki player, Darlow has collaborated with a bunch of Aussie music icons. His cover of the Goanna classic, ‘Solid Rock’ featured Shane Howard and got massive airplay on radio all around the country. The video included such notables as: David Wirrpanda, Dipper, Kouta, Uncle Jack Charles, Ash Grunwald, Adam Brand, Allen Christensen and Kasey Chambers. His song ‘Sorry’ is in my opinion, anointed, it never fails to move me, while the confronting words and images of his 2020 tune, ‘You Can’t See Black in the Dark’ stirred the kids in the class I was teaching to sing it for days and weeks afterwards.

 

That’s how I met Scott, but what made us mates was the moment he walked into my office and saw the walls covered with Geelong posters and memorabilia. We are both Cats tragics and the bond was instantaneous. We were at the 2009 Grand Final, I was lucky enough to get him a ticket for the 2011 Grannie and along with families and friends we celebrated the glory of the 2022 flag at the G.
Having both grown up watching the Cats lose Grand Finals on repeat, we now savour the joy of premiership victories with a level of contentment previously unknown.

 

Early this year Darlow declared, “We need to start a Cats podcast!”. I was up for it and he set the wheels in motion with a draft and recruiting drive. Our first target was Shaun, a dedicated footy mate and member of a text group that has been frenetically discussing and analysing Geelong games for several years. Sadly, work commitments prevented Shaun coming on board although we’re hopeful he’ll make guest appearances from time to time.

 

Next came Simon ‘Hawk’ Hawking who has serious footy cred. He and Scott went to uni together and now reminisce fondly about uni days, drinking in Melbourne pubs, going to nightclubs and days playing footy. Darlow spent a few years at Coburg in the VFA but Simon went to Fitzroy and was there during the sad years of the Lions’ decline and demise. He played in Fitzroy’s final funereal game versus Fremantle at the end of 1996. He is featured in Russell Holmesby’s book, The Death of Fitzroy Football Club and according to The Encyclopedia of VFL/AFL Footballers, the recommendation of Alistair Lynch was a catalyst that saw him become one of the eight Fitzroy players to move to Brisbane in the “merger”. Sadly, a serious knee injury prevented Hawk adding to the 60 games he played for Fitzroy. He actually went on to have a season at Sydney and another one at Collingwood where despite not playing a senior game, he remembers his time at the Magpies fondly. However, there is even more to Simon’s story. His grandfather, Fred Hawking, played 102 games for Geelong in the 1930s, winning the Best and Fairest in 1935 and was a member of the Cats’ third premiership team in 1937, captained by the legendary Reg Hickey. Hawk’s Dad Graeme played U19s and a few games in the ressies at Geelong before taking the path less travelled, into the theatre as a comic actor. None other than Barry Crocker was his understudy.

 

Hawk’s only regret is that he never got to play in the hoops. These days he’s an outdoor Ed teacher and our resident ‘grumpy old man’ sounding off about the AFL, umpires and all that’s wrong with the game. He brings real experience and insight into our discussions about Geelong and all things football. Despite having only met him once prior to the podcast I’ve quickly grown to appreciate Hawk’s insights, rants and dry humour.

 

The fourth and final member of The Cat Pack is Ronnie, another mate of Scott’s. While doing some media at a radio station in 2020, someone told Darlow about a mad Cats’ fan who worked in radio, his name was Ronnie Stanton. Scott cold-called him and a beautiful friendship was born. Ronnie hails from the Gold Coast and has worked in radio around Australia and in North America. As a Queenslander, Ronnie grew up on rugby league but saw the light in 2000 when radio brought him to Victoria. He has fond memories of living in the renovated church on Percy Street in Newtown and walking to games at Kardinia Park. He spent a couple of years at K-Rock (formerly 3GL) which has a very long and proud history of connection with Geelong, having broadcast games live for an incredible 93 years. Ronnie loves the Cats and follows their progress devotedly wherever he is in the world. Sporting a blonde bouffant and a vast array of Hawaiian shirts, Ronnie is the host for each episode, and every week comes up with a unique introduction for each of us along with the now traditional opening, “Welcome to the Cat Pack, four Nuff Nuffs who just happen to love the Geelong Football Club”.

 

I, by the way, am Marcus Holt, former youthworker, school chaplain, primary school teacher and now, for the second time, bus driver in Victoria’s second city. I’ve been lurking around the edges of the Almanac community since the mid 2000s, making occasional contributions and enjoying the breadth and talent of writers in both the beloved books and the webpage. I had the good fortune to meet John Harms at an Almanac gathering and love his vision and his writing. My own Geelong history dates back to 1966 when we moved from Melbourne so my Dad could begin work as the BP Rep for the Bellarine. I loved football and instantly became a passionate Cats fan. I was 6 years old when I suffered the first of a litany of Grand Final disappointments, the loss to Richmond in 1967. My every waking hour was consumed by playing footy, the school day was broken up into first quarter, little lunch, 2nd and 3rd quarters, lunchtime and last quarter, afternoon recess at Newtown State School, just up the road from our house on Aberdeen St. I was not a popular kid so never got selected with the cool kids but my footy ability gave me a certain amount of credibility.

 

I started playing at the Geelong West YMCA little league on Saturday mornings. There were only two teams to begin with, The Toughies (my team) and the Terribles- our weekly opponents, all of us bedecked in adult sized footy jumpers down to our knees. The following year I joined the Terrifics in a six team comp with an emphasis on positive reinforcement- the Dazzlers, Beauts, Corkers, Rippers and Scorchers. We were coached by Mr Nicholls, who I learned much later in life was actually Eric Nicholls who played for Geelong in the 60s alongside my heroes like Polly Farmer and Doug Wade.

 

My crowning achievement was being named in the best players and kicking two of our four goals in our epic Under Nine Grand Final victory over the Dazzlers in 1969. I also had the good fortune to be selected for the SSB little league team to represent the Cats in several half time games at Kardinia Park, Waverley and the MCG, long before the ‘everyone gets a medal’ era of AusKick. Sorry, a bit of nostalgic indulgence there.

 

Having assembled our team of four Cats’ Nuff Nuffs, we connect online to record The Cat Pack each week in the days following Geelong’s game.
Ronnie’s radio experience and Darlow’s muso knowledge help us deal with the tech side of things. Hawk brings anecdotes and observations. Darlow brings passion and insight and colourful phrases and stories. I’m seen (by myself at least) as the voice of reason and purveyor of stats and history. Ronnie skilfully draws us out, or redirects us as needed.

 

We have regular segments: a review of the game just played with plenty of emotion and a smattering of data, our 3 stars award for the standout performance of the week, not necessarily confined to the AFL game, the Naughty Corner where someone, or in Hawk’s case several people, are confined to the stool in the corner to have a good hard think about their behaviour, a quick comment about other games/players/coaches/issues, a weekly quiz question with time to come up with (google) an answer by the end of the episode, a preview and prediction for the upcoming Cats game, a dip into the mailbag to hear what listeners are saying and a liberal helping of stories, jokes and ribbing at one another’s expense.
It has quickly become one of the best parts of my week and I love listening back once Scott has done the editing, often smiling and laughing at the stuff we’ve said. We recently recorded an episode with former Cat Marty Christensen and hope to have more players as guests in future.

 

The Cat Pack is on Spotify and you don’t need an account to listen.

 

We have an email address: [email protected] and listeners can also leave comments on Spotify.

 

We’re up to our 17th episode, which means we’ve crossed the threshold of fifteen episodes that my mate Letchy assures me means we’ll have a future.

 

We intend to keep recording in the off-season and will branch out into other areas of interest and passion no doubt, whilst maintaining our primary focus, our mutual love and devotion to the Cats.

 

 

More from Marcus Holt Here

 

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE